The “good jobs” of the past are almost gone. Today, many university graduates face unemployment while others face underemployment. Ken Coates and Bill Morrison explore the death of the “good job,” and the role that universities have played in the disconnect between career fantasies and realities.

A baker's dozen of Waldrop's best short stories about movie and TV. Dream Factories and Radio Pictures collects twelve of Howard Waldrop's movie (“dream factories”) and television ("radio pictures") stories from his first four collections, as well as a new article and a new story. The stories — about personalities, history, projections, alternatives, guesses, and the effects they had and keep on having as they and we evolve — are accompanied by Waldrop’s original (in every sense of the word) introductions full of "Strange But True facts uncovered while researching them.” The collection includes: "Fin de Cyclé,” "Save a Place in the Lifeboat for Me,” “French Scenes,” "Heirs of the Perisphere,” "Hoover’s Men,” "Major Spacer in the 21st Century,” and more.

The history of postwar German cinema has most often been told as a story of failure, a failure paradoxically epitomized by the remarkable popularity of film throughout the late 1940s and 1950s. Through the analysis of 10 representative films, Hester Baer reassesses this period, looking in particular at how the attempt to 'dismantle the dream factory' of Nazi entertainment cinema resulted in a new cinematic language which developed as a result of the changing audience demographic. In an era when female viewers comprised 70 per cent of cinema audiences a 'women's cinema' emerged, which sought to appeal to female spectators through its genres, star choices, stories and formal conventions. In addition to analyzing the formal language and narrative content of these films, Baer uses a wide array of other sources to reconstruct the original context of their reception, including promotional and publicity materials, film programs, censorship documents, reviews and spreads in fan magazines. This book presents a new take on an essential period, which saw the rebirth of German cinema after its thorough delegitimization under the Nazi regime.

When Eve Handel, one of the few women in Hollywood with the power to make or break a star, is hospitalized due to a life-threatening illness, those closest to her become concerned for their reputations, because Eve's journal full of dark secrets is missing.

When the Disney World character actors go on strike, teens are hired as replacements. Ella is assigned the role of Cinderella simply because the shoes fit. And every afternoon at three o?clock she gets married to Prince Charming. A perfect dream come true?except Ella doesn?t believe in dreams anymore. Meanwhile, Luke is one of the fur characters (Dale, the chipmunk), and his girlfriend, Cassie, plays his counterpart, Chip. Cassie is perfect in every way, so why does Luke want to be with Cinderella? Then Luke and Ella are brought together during a scavenger hunt, and as they uncover the Magic Kingdom?s hidden treasures, they discover an undeniable magic between them. Perhaps dreams really can come true after all?

SPECTATOR BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2015 Britain's empire has gone. Our manufacturing base is a shadow of its former self; the Royal Navy has been reduced to a skeleton. In military, diplomatic and economic terms, we no longer matter as we once did. And yet there is still one area in which we can legitimately claim superpower status: our popular culture. It is extraordinary to think that one British writer, J. K. Rowling, has sold more than 400 million books; that Doctor Who is watched in almost every developed country in the world; that James Bond has been the central character in the longest-running film series in history; that The Lord of the Rings is the second best-selling novel ever written (behind only A Tale of Two Cities); that the Beatles are still the best-selling musical group of all time; and that only Shakespeare and the Bible have sold more books than Agatha Christie. To put it simply, no country on earth, relative to its size, has contributed more to the modern imagination. This is a book about the success and the meaning of Britain's modern popular culture, from Bond and the Beatles to heavy metal and Coronation Street, from the Angry Young Men to Harry Potter, from Damien Hirst toThe X Factor.